


Blast Radius

by PinguinoSentado



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 20:17:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5884108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinguinoSentado/pseuds/PinguinoSentado
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Piper and Nat convince Nora to play Blast Radius, but as Nora quietly relives her own escape from the bombs, Piper makes sure the sole survivor knows she's not alone anymore</p>
<p>Prompt fill from Tumblr request</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blast Radius

**Author's Note:**

> Fluffy Tumblr prompt fill for jess. Again, I took a few liberties with the surrounding story. I hope you enjoy it!

Nora watched Nat upend the small box over the table and could not help but laugh. “Blast Radius? That game’s ancient!”

The woman in the press cap leaned back against the couch with a laugh and swung one leg rather distractingly over the other. “Pots calling kettles.”

“It’s impolite to discuss a lady’s age, Piper,” Nora played at being offended and leaned toward the lovely journalist.

“Would it help if I said you’ve aged remarkably well?”

“Yes,” Nora leaned in and allowed Piper one brief kiss. “But it’s still very hurtful.”

Nat was gleefully digging out the pieces, assigning Piper and Nora colors after claiming the blue for herself. Nora was still baffled by the whole thing. “Blast Radius,” she said again. How long had it been?

Piper showed herself to be a mind reader. “Been a while since you played? Don’t expect us to take it easy on you.”

The little girl nodded eagerly. “We never have anyone to play with. Sometimes that detective comes over but he almost never stays.”

Nora gave Piper a playful look. “You have a gentleman caller I don’t know about? Should I be jealous?”

“Oh, yeah, me and Nick go way back,” Piper looked fondly at the ceiling. “Sometimes we help each other solve cases. Other times, we just…” her look turned devious. “Help each other get through the day.”

“That’ll teach me to ask,” Nora muttered, the teasing in her voice faltering.

Piper laughed and pulled Nora across the couch. “Aw, you know you’re the only one for me. I’ll introduce you sometime.” There was an unsettling pause as Nora came to rest against Piper’s shoulder. “Besides,” she purred. “His assistant is much prettier than he is.”

Nora tried to roll away but grudgingly allowed Piper to pull her back down. By now Nat had set up the board and placed the three colored pieces right in the center of the board. The game was simple enough: outrun everyone else to escape the nuclear blast. It added a certain simplistic elegance to the end of the world. If you were clever, quick, and lucky, you could escape certain death. Nora preferred that to the sudden, horrifying flashes of light she remembered from so long ago. It did not matter how quick or clever you were. Someone in some distant land had stamped their finger down on a map. If they happened to stamp down on your little slice of the world, you would never even know.

Suppressing a shiver, Nora leaned closer to Piper. Luck had saved her life. Her piece had found the edge of the board. Unfortunately for her, the other two pieces had been her husband and son, and no one had told her the rules of the game.

Warm breath on her ear stirred her out of the past. Piper, surely seeing Nora’s face turn gloomy, put her lips to Nora’s temple, gently pushing the grief and despair from her mind. Nora looked toward her and smiled in thanks. Nora, as always, was luckier than she knew.

Nat, oblivious to the wordless ‘I love you’s, now looked up from the board. “Do you know the rules?”

Nora shrugged. She recalled the rules perfectly, but after a baffling conversation about the true nature of baseball, she was willing to play it safe. “I’m a little rusty. How do you two play?”

Piper smiled endearingly. “Well, youngest goes first,” she started as Nat bounced excitedly. “Then me, then you,” Nora raised an eyebrow. Piper gave her a knowing look. “You don’t pay rent.”

“Fair point.”

Nat took over the explanation. Much of the game was as Nora remembered, to her great surprise. No one ever read instruction manuals before the war. She half-expected Nat to start describing how each piece could be bumped back to start by a Deathclaw attack, or cost one turn due to a radiation storm. Even more surprising was the lack of special rules for Nat’s benefit. It was hard to imagine Piper actually playing the game competitively against her little sister.

When she had finished, Piper looked at Nora. “Coming back to you now?”

“More or less,” Nora said, still waiting on a rule that gave a practice spin to girls under four feet tall. “Is that it?”

“That’s it!” Nat chirped. “Can we start?”

Without waiting, Nat reached over and cranked the spinner with enough force to jar the board. Piper failed to stifle a fond chuckle as Nora looked on, still unsure whether or not the feeling of pre-war comfort was a welcome thing. Looking around the home, seeing Piper and Nat still in their coats to combat the chill of the night air, she wanted nothing more than to embrace it. This was what they wanted, what Piper fought day and night for. They were safe here.

Nora watched as Piper leaned over and gave the cord a jerk. Even that motion looked so finessed. Piper beamed as she moved her piece ahead of Nat’s. Nat glared at the spinner and waited impatiently for Nora to take her turn.

She did, watching the spinner stop and reflecting that she had been very lucky in love, first with Nate and Shaun, and now with Piper and Nat. To be that lucky, one had to be unlucky somewhere else. It was just how things worked. For Nora, Blast Radius was where she paid her dues. Her piece did not even get to move. Piper openly smirked, consoling the poor girl with a very condescending pat on her shoulder.

Nat cared not at all, spinning the mushroom cloud and willing it to obey her command. Her spin sent Piper back to join Nora who, without hesitation, gave her bristling girlfriend the same, condescending pat. Piper glared.

The game went on much the same way. Piper and Nat all but threw the table at one another in a mad scramble to escape the tiny mass extinction while Nora, still trapped in the center of the board, tried in vain to appease the silent, fickle gods of board games.

Nora had all but given up hope when she gave the spinner a desultory crank and whooped with joy when it put her just behind Piper. The girl in the trench coat rolled her eyes and removed her arm from around Nora’s shoulders, apparently deciding she no longer needed consoling.

“Well, look who’s the lucky one.”

“Ah, well, real world experience, and all that.”

The quip surprised Nora as much as it did Piper. The two had never talked much about Nora’s time before the Vault. The extraordinary level of strain this put on Piper was not lost on Nora, but to this day, all the rabid journalist knew was that she had loved her family and had all but given up on finding her son. Nora, seeing Piper’s tentative expression, put a comforting hand on her leg.

Nat, panic-stricken at her newfound competition, had snatched at the cord before Nora had even set her piece down and completely ignored the comment. Her spin put her one move from the edge of the board, but with Piper so close behind, the terror on her face was plain.

Piper leaned in and again pulled the cord, this time with unmistakable care. Nora watched in awe as the spinner landed exactly one short of the edge of the board. Piper howled at what could only have been terrible luck. Hope burst over Nat’s tiny features.

Nora spun her own dial, sighing in relief as she fell back into the gods’ disfavor. As much as she wanted to beat Piper, she did not have the heart to beat little Nat, particularly since doing so might get her sent to the couch for the night. She took the opportunity to instead block Piper’s next move. The fury of the press descended on Nora as she did, making her wonder if perhaps cards were a better choice next time.

Nat’s spin won the game, putting her outside the blast and dooming Piper and Nora to spend eternity together as little piles of dust. Nat took a victory lap and basked in her survival skills as Piper swore up and down that she had been robbed of her own narrow escape.

The night petered out with another game with the older Wright sister escaping the blast by shoving her younger sibling into the dirt at the very end. Nat flailed and demanded a rematch while Piper gloated and put the board away. Eventually, Nat sulked her way into her corner and contented herself with a few drawings.

Piper returned to bed the conquering hero, her damsel waiting patiently for her attentions. Nora could hardly repress a laugh at the image. She made a terrible damsel in distress, and the loft in Publick Occurrences made no better a tower prison.

“Ah, poor Nora,” Piper stopped at the edge of the bed, doffing her cap. “We hardly knew thee. I still see your face everywhere I look. But we can rest easy knowing you lived a long, long, long life.”

Nora swatted at the woman. “It’s probably a good thing you weren’t around back then. If I had seen you on the road to the Vault, I may never have made it to the door.”

“Distracted by a pretty face in the crowd?”

“Sure,” Nora said as Piper tried to claim a piece of the bed for her own. “Then whacked in the knees by her little sister.”

Piper sighed proudly. “Taught her everything she knows. Brings a tear to the eye.”

Having muscled her way onto the side of the bed, Piper decided to trade affection for space, kissing her way to the far side of the bed and leaving Nora dangling precariously over the edge. Nora watched as the woman made herself comfortable.

“Admit it, you let her win that first time.”

Piper feigned horror. “I would never!” Nora gave her a flat look. “Do you really think I would coddle my own little sister? She needs to be tough! The day may come when life or death hangs in the balance, and only the skills learned through in the crucible of Blast Radius can save her from the end.”

“Nope,” Nora swiped the press cap off Piper’s head. “You let her win.”

Piper made a grab for the hat but Nora held it out of reach. Trying to reach over Nora, Piper made a dignified pouty face. “Are you suggesting that I, advocate of the free press and proprietor of Publick Occurrences, am a liar?”

Keeping the woman’s hat out of reach while she was climbing over Nora proved exceedingly difficult. “Of course not,” Nora nearly toppled off the bed as Piper made a grab for the hat. “The Publick would never lie to the people.”

The hat fell to the floor. Piper’s hand tangled itself in Nora’s, momentarily forgetting all about its prize. “Never,” Piper whispered. “But maybe I don’t think of Nat as the people.”

Piper settled herself on top of Nora, resting her chin on her chest. Nora could see the journalist in her bubbling to the surface. She nearly laughed at it. Here they were, knotted rather intimately in Piper’s bedroom, and she was still looking for a story.

Nora’s free hand pushed some of that black hair back over the woman’s ear. “Piper –“

“You don’t have to tell me,” Piper hurriedly cut in. Nora could swear she heard her inquisitive heart screaming. “I mean, you can, if you want to, but I know it wasn’t easy. And I know you’ll tell me. When you’re ready.”

“You’re very patient.”

Piper managed to look offended. “Does that surprise you?”

“Well, you’re always telling me that ‘nothing stays hidden forever!’”

The impression put a smile on Piper’s face. “Maybe, but that’s what I’m saying. Sometimes you have to be patient. If I put the screws to you over this, who knows what other juicy secrets I’ll never get to learn.”

Nora groaned and let her head flop against the pillow. “And here I was thinking you were going to say something sweet.”

Piper’s face hovered back into view as she climbed over Nora. “You know me,” she said, apologizing to Nora with a long, heartfelt kiss. “I’m just in it for the story.”

“I’d never deny you a story,” Nora said truthfully as Piper allowed her to breathe again. “And I know I can tell you anything. Just… A little more time. I promise.”


End file.
